Chronicles of Curiosity: A Journey through Headless Hashnode

As always, new features from Hashnode are consistently impressive. I came across an announcement on Hashnode's Twitter account about a new feature that extends Hashnode's capabilities. They called this feature "Headless Hashnode." I decided to give it a try later on. While I was minding my own business, Dani, Hashnode's DevRel, presented a challenge on Twitter for developers. They could participate by building their blogs with Headless Hashnode, and the top 3 submissions would be awarded... More on the gift later. The point is, my curiosity has been revitalized by this awesome challenge. 💪
Great job, Dani.

Introduction

In this post, I will share my journey with Headless Hashnode, including the good, the bad, and the ugly. Actually, there is no "good," "bad," or anything like that. I just like the phrase. You can already tell that my writing is somewhat loose and casual. Just so you know, this is not a how-to guide;🤪 it's just me sharing my experiences with the world.

Day 1: In Exploration, Wisdom Begins

The first thing I do when facing a challenge is not to dive headfirst, but rather to gain enough domain knowledge to understand what I'm getting into. So, first things first, I went in search to understand what "Headless" means. To my surprise, "Headless" does not mean "no head" but rather "any head". Headless CMS are tools that allow you to display your data on any frontend(head). Essentially, your content is no longer limited to a particular platform; you can display it on any frontend, such as mobile, social media, website, etc. I guess the people who came up with that name thought "Headless" sounds cooler than "AnyHead."

But let's not get carried away; we are here for Headless Hashnode. Essentially, what Hashnode is trying to say is that you are no longer limited by the interface or frontend they provide. You can now make your blog look exactly the way you want.
And that marks the exploration of day one.

Day 2: The Joy of Recognition

I woke up, checked Twitter, and was shocked. A post I made on the previous day (day 1) had been liked by Hashnode executives.🥳 I was so happy that the energy from that happiness still sustains me. It's funny how a tweet can be the source of either happiness or depression. As if liking my post wasn't enough, the co-founders of Hashnode, along with Hashnode's official Twitter account, reposted my tweet.

The joy I felt that day was so immense that not even hunger could quench it. I felt like I had achieved something significant in life. I broke many records: my first post to engage with industry experts, the first post to be liked and reposted by a co-founder, and definitely my first post to cross 500 impressions. As of the time I am writing this, it has 1.5k impressions.

The rest of the day was spent exploring the Headless starter kit.

Day 3: Crafting with the Tools of Opportunity

Hashnode had a great plan to help developers get started quickly and easily with Headless Hashnode. They came up with the starter kit template, which is a frontend interface for your blog with most of the necessary elements already included. All you have to do is plug in your domain and deploy the starter kit. Then, sit back and relax while your blog emerges with a sleek interface. The starter kit offers two themes: the personal theme and the enterprise theme. For my blog, I chose the enterprise theme because the interface is cooler.

At the end of the day, the pull request I submitted to the Headless Hashnode starter kit on GitHub the previous day was successfully merged, earning me a seat at the contributor's table.

Day 4: Tripping Stones on the Path to Mastery

I'm done with exploring and enjoying the recognition that came with my effort, and now it's time to dive deeper. I thought to myself that if this much effort brought me such sweet appreciation from the community, then more will follow if I put in more work. So I customized the UI of my blog, which was easy because my CSS skills are proficient. I decided to take it a step further by changing the font family, but I couldn't.🥲

Wait, didn't you say your CSS skill is good enough? Yes, it is, but I don't know Next.js well enough. The mighty starter kit was written in Next.js, which became my stumbling block. Then, like any confused tech enthusiast would do, I dived into the web in search of a solution, but none of them suited my needs. The day ended without me finding any solution, and I learned a valuable lesson from that experience, which I will share with you the next day.

Day 5: Seeking Knowledge from the Wise

While I'm not an expert, I sometimes want to be seen as one. You know, the "fake it until you make it" mentality. However, that approach wasn't working for me anymore. I had to go to the Discord channel for Headless Hashnode and ask for help on how to use an external font in Next.js. As you can tell, the answer came quickly. I implemented it, and it worked. My hours of searching on the internet were resolved in minutes just by asking the right people.

Lesson: You don't know means you don't know. Leave your ego behind. Ask the right people, and you will get the right answers.

And so the day ended.

Lesson: You don't know means you don't know. Leave that ego. Ask the right people and you will get the right answer.

And so the day ended.

Day 6: Designing Visions into Reality

On this day, I was already wrapping up my starter kit design. I was working on blog ideas to write about Headless Hashnode. I currently have five drafts on my writing list about Headless Hashnode, one of which is titled "Crazy Ideas You Could Explore with Headless Hashnode."

When you look at what Hashnode offers, you might either think it's audacious or a great love for developers. By default, Hashnode allows you to host your Hashnode articles on your custom domain instead of theirs, unlike other blogging platforms that keep everything on their own domains. Of course, this selfless act from Hashnode is great, except that the actual "hashnode.dev" domain doesn't receive much traffic because many users are deployed to their custom domains.

I am pleased to announce to you that Hashnode has taken this sweet madness to the next level by pushing out Headless Hashnode + the Public API.

I'm pleased to announce that Hashnode has taken this sweet madness to the next level by introducing Headless Hashnode and the Public API 2.0. 🥳

Essentially, the Public API provides read access to not only your blog but also blogs from other writers. This means you can create a Headless blog and display not only your articles but also articles from other publishers. Do you know what that means? Be sure to check out my post on "Crazy Ideas You Could Explore with Headless Hashnode" when it comes out because I'm going to blow your mind.

Do you know with Headless Hashnode powered by the Public API you can now run Ads on your blog? Yes, no need to allow that sweet traffic waste away. You can milk some cash out of it.

Day 7: The Triumph of Creativity

We've reached the final day of the challenge, which also happens to be the day I started writing.

The Headless Hashnode community has begun submitting their blogs. It's amazing to see what people can build in just seven days. Some submissions (blogs) are so impressive that I'd have to pay you to convince you that these were powered by Hashnode. The designs are simply superb.

Wrapping up

There are many incredible experiences I've had in these few days. I can't discuss them all in a single post, but with the Hashnode community, my learning, network, and joy have grown. Did I mention that Hashnode has launched a Twitch account, and I happened to be their first follower?😁 At Hashnode, regardless of your level, there is room for you to shine. There are numerous opportunities in the community that anyone can tap into.

Thank you, Hashnode, for creating this incredible platform and for the challenges you present to developers.

Thanks, Dani, you're an amazing leader. Your smile erases all the frustration that bugs in my code give me. 😊

Thanks to the incredible Hashnode community, you are very welcoming.

Thank you, friend, yes, you, for reading my post.